Big Red Knives BBQ Collection:
Ah, spitting fires, smoking coals. On largest island that is also the smallest continent is there anything more Australian on this unique land than firing up the barbie and having a group of mates over for the arvo? These proudly Australian made and owned barbecue knives will elevate your outdoor cooking and dining experience to a level never before seen. Accessorise your Aussie dream with the manly and roguishly handsome Big Red Knives BBQ Collection. For knives like these, it’s not an expenditure, it’s an investment!
Boning Knife | The “Tassie Devil” Knife
After an extensive period of design and development we are finally satisfied with our own work enough to proudly present the Big Red Knives’ Boning Knife! As a specialised tool this knife required much consideration and testing to get right. Named after the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial and an Aussie native, the Tasmanian Devil was the only choice for a knife of this calibre. Relative to the Tassie Devil’s size, its bite is one of the most powerful of any mammal. They are ferocious carnivores and happily crunch bone and all. Lethal like the functionality of this knife. From tip to spine, the blade was carefully shaped and honed for optimum functionality and maximum control. The curved spine allows for a finer tip and a longer cutting edge while its slender profile and sturdy spine enables the blade to pursue the cut as close to the bone and joints as possible.
Use:
Boning knives are a specialised precision tool, surgical almost! In terms of construction they should be thinner than the average kitchen knife but sturdier and more rigid than a fillet knife. With the Big Red Knives’ Boning Knife we have gone a step further with our high-carbon hard Japanese VG-10 steel which ensures a long-lasting razor-sharp edge. Unlike some boning knives with a straight spine, our Tassie Devil Knife has a pointed tip that curves at a slight angle to not only pierce but create the slice from the tip as the rest of the blade follows through. This gives you the option of a smooth back and forth slicing action and prevents jagged cuts. Our signature resin-infused handles made of local Australian woods are ergonomically shaped. This allows for a tight grip to handle the surgical task of deboning as you separate meat from bone. Apart from deboning our Tassie Devil Knife can also be used for effortlessly removing skin from meat, cutting through ligaments and connective tissue, removing fats and of course slicing the meat into your desired cuts.
The Tasmanian Devil:
Native to the island of Tasmania the Devil is about the size of a small dog. It is highly recognisable by its stocky and muscular build, black fur and loud screech. With a keen sense of smell, powerful jaws and ferocity when feeding, the Devil is a formidable predator on the island. Compared to the lower half of its body, the Devil has a large head and neck. This supports a network of muscles to generate one of the strongest bites per unit body mass of any land mammal. Despite its rotund appearance that some may attribute to being cute, it is capable of surprising speed and endurance. The Devil is able to climb trees as well as swim across rivers. They are hunters as well as scavengers and would eat any game they find not to the bone but including the bones. This fierce take no prisoners lifestyle starts young for the Devil as mothers can give birth to over 20-30 raisin-sized young (called imps) per litter. However, with only four teats to feed them in the marsupial pouch, the survival of the fittest starts early! For these Tassie Devils, it really is no rest for the wicked!
A gruesome and unusual fact about the Tassie Devil is that they sometimes like to fall asleep inside a rotting carcass (also called a ‘carrion’) like a little meat cave so that when they wake they may continue feeding. Though the imagery may mentally conjure up what may look like the cover of a death metal album, these small carnivorous creatures are actually helping the environment by keeping areas clear of carcasses and free from blowfly maggots. Similarly, our Boning knife is just as comfortable inside the primal cut or whole bird. At a blade length of 152mm the knife is long enough to make efficient clean slices while still at a length that provides manoeuvrability while the blade swivels and pivots as it follows the bone. To be able to keep up their dietary lifestyle, the teeth of these Devils never stop growing as they’re constantly ground down from gnawing and crunching bone. The sharpness of our blades promises similar longevity. Unlike kitchen knives made with western steels that are softer, blunt quicker and tend to require sharpening more often, our blades are made with Japanese high-carbon hard steel which ensures an edge that is both sharper and lasts longer.
TASSIE DEVIL FACT: True to the depiction of Looney Toon’s “Taz”, our featured creature truly does have an oversized head. These oversized heads holds a function however, and contains so much muscular strength that they can not only crush bone but also bite through the strongest of metals, often breaking the cages of livestock and other animals. The structure of their jaws additionally allows for them to extend their jaws up to 80 degrees wide, a truly ferocious beast!
Specs:
Collection: Big Red Knives BBQ Collection
Manufacturer: Koi Knives
Made in Australia with Japanese steel
Blade steel: VG-10 Japanese hard steel core with Stainless Steel cladding
Blade length: 152mm (overall 280mm)
Blade thickness: 2mm
Weight: 135g
Handle length: 130mm
Handle wood: All local but varies from wood of olive trees, Shiraz grapevines from McLaren Vale (wine region of South Australia) to specially sourced wood Australian deserts.
Aussie Knives by Aussies:
“That’s not a knife, THAT’S a knife” now we all know the memorable quote from Crocodile Dundee but his Bowie knife though good for hunting is not ideal for use in the kitchen. In fact, as far as Aussie knives made by Aussies go and in the words of our bladesmith Shannon “there’s nothing like it that exists.”
We are a local Australian company of two, Shannon and Ramon. Our story began in the dry Adelaide Hills with our parents, Shannon’s father was a blacksmith and Ramon has an affinity with Japanese culture as his parents met in Japan. Combined with our love for knives, cooking and making things from local materials, we came up with a unique idea of making traditional Japanese knives with an Australian twist. Since then our company Koi Knives have been making knives for several years we have made a range of 12 Japanese knives. However, many have asked us to make a range of Western knives. Initially, we were hesitant as Western knives are made with softer steel, they tend to be less sharp and also blunt quicker. Where’s our true Aussie early settlers’ pioneering spirit we thought? This is not a challenge! This is an opportunity! We decided to give the idea a fair suck of the bottled sauce and a fair crack of the whip. From there we began designing and eventually crafting this new range. Instead of western steels, we stuck with a Japanese hard high-carbon VG-10 steel as the core of the knife but designed with a Western-style grip.
Our knife shed as our HMS Endeavour, we hit the shores of our expedition with this new set of Aussie knives. The first and finest truly Australian knives are crafted here locally by your two local blokes. We sought to pay homage to our land and our native animals with this set. To create a truly unique and Australia product the shape and form of each knife was modelled after a specially chosen iconic native animal which we also emboss onto the steel at the end.
Blade:
The core of the blade is made entirely of VG-10 is a type of Japanese hard steel, it is cutlery-grade steel with a high carbon content containing 1% Carbon, 15% Chromium, 1% Molybdenum, 0.2% Vanadium, and 1.5% Cobalt. The ‘G’ in VG-10 stands for Gold, as an indicator of the premium standard of quality. This core is then sharpened to razor sharpness and then cladded with the same steel for protection and longevity. After this, we smelt three layers of sandblasted stainless steel on the top section of the blade for a gun-mental steel finish. The sandblasting also on a practical level provide micro air cavities which prevent vegetables from sticking to the blade while cutting. The final result is like the Australian landscape in a blade, from the scorching sands to shimmering shore: from the spine, the darker sandblasted steel tapers down from the grind line to reveal shiny stainless steel before a dancing line glints off the clad edge to the razor-sharp cutting edge.
Handle:
These Aussie knives are part of our Full Tang Clan. Full tang is when the steel of the blade runs all the way through the handle instead of Partial Tang where the steel might end partway through. Full tang allows for more force to be applied without a risk of the knife snapping at the bolster (the base where the blade transitions to the handle). Our knives are very sharp so less force would have to be applied in any case, however, we chose the full tang design in keeping with the aesthetics of Western knives and to set this collection apart from our Japanese Koi Knives. Functionality was designed into the handle with different grips in mind to fit ambidextrously and snugly in your hand. When using a "Handle In Hand Grip" the bevel contours seamlessly from fingers to palm. When using the "Pinch Grip" the smooth transition from handle to blade forms a great comfortable position to pinch the knife.
One of the elements we are most proud of is our signature resin-infused handles crafted with local woods. Each handle is one of a kind and cannot be replicated. All the wood is sourced locally, typically in South Australia’s wine region and varies from the wood from olive trees to Shiraz grapevines, however we have even gathered Gidgee wood from the Simpson Desert. These handles are made with resin in a range of different colours, we feel very strongly about pairing certain colours to the animal that inspired the knife.
Maintenance:
After each use:
Simply wipe down in warm soapy water, dry and place on a knife rack away from humidity. Job done!
Long term maintenance:
Big Red Knives are made with a VG-10 Japanese steel core and therefore has a higher carbon content than the average Western kitchen knives. This lends the knives their particular long lasting sharpness, however they also like to be kept dry when not in use and should not be exposed extensively to heat, hot water or ambient high humidity. They should most definitely never be put into the dishwasher or other such nonsense. Each knife was made with love, so please take care of them for us!
Sharpening:
Knives made with a VG-10 Japanese steel core are harder at the edge, this means less honing is needed but should instead be professionally sharpened and ideally with a whetstone. Depending on frequency of use, the knife may need to be sharpened by a professional every 3-6 months for most people. We have an extensive list of sharpeners we can recommend in every state if you’d like to contact us.
Handle:
Similarly, the handle was crafted with resin and coated with a polish that also should not be soaked in hot water. Extended exposure to hot water may damage the polish on the handle that is the protective shield for the wood and resin. Over the years, if the handle starts to look a bit dull a small amount of furniture polish may be used to buff back the shine.
For more information on knife maintenance please see our page: https://www.koiknives.com/pages/maintenance
